This invention pertains generally to waterbeds, and more particularly to a waterbed mattress having baffle means for preventing excessive undulations of water in the mattress.
Although waterbeds have enjoyed wide popularity in recent years, some persons are disturbed by the wave-like motion or undulations of the water within the mattress. There have been many attempts to reduce the water movement, for example, by employing vertically-extending baffles inside the mattress. Carson in U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,604 describes a waterbed mattress having perforated, freely-swingable vertical flaps to resist excessive motion of fluid within the mattress. In addition, Fogel in U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,780 describes a waterbed mattress having a baffle dampener comprising an upstanding plastic sheet and a horizontal flotation rod.
Improvements in dampening wave motion have been obtained by using horizontally-extending baffles. Such baffles are described in my aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,962 and my U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,348. These horizontally-extending baffles can comprise a pad of buoyant material anchored to the bottom wall of the mattress so that the pad floats between the top and bottom walls. Fogel in U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,031 describes a baffle comprising a horizontally-extending piece of foam anchored to the bottom of the mattress. Although horizontally extending baffles can be effective in reducing water wave motion, baffles secured to a wall of the mattress when the mattress comprises an inner enclosure and an outer liner cannot be used because it is difficult to assemble such a mattress. Further, a weld to the inner bag can form a leak path.
My U.S. Pat. No. 3,585,356 shows a waterbed mattress having a plurality of solid particles of a material such as Styrofoam.TM. floating in the water for dampening shock waves in the water. Although the particles of Styrofoam.TM. can reduce wave motion, if the Styrofoam.TM. is provided as a solid block more effective wave reduction results. However, it is difficult to fold a solid block of Styrofoam.TM. in a mattress for storage or shipping.
Therefore, it is apparent that there is a need for a baffled waterbed mattress that (i) can be folded, (ii) has the advantages of a horizontally-extending baffle, (iii) does not require the baffle to be secured to any of the walls of the mattress, and (iv) has a baffle that floats spaced apart from the bottom wall of the mattress.